Toronto shootings traced to Iranian funding, court files show

The attacks arrived in the dark hours: gunmen stepping out of stolen cars, emptying handguns into building doorways, filming the bursts on phones, and driving off before sunrise. Police in Toronto have charged young suspects in a string of such incidents. What they could not pin down, until now, was who paid for them.

A CBC News investigation identified 12 shootings in the Greater Toronto Area that appear to have been financed by the Iranian government. Targets included synagogues, a school, businesses and the U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto. No one was hurt in any of the attacks.

Many of the shootings took place in the hours and days after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28 and killed the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Court files reviewed by CBC News show arrests followed, and most suspects face charges covering multiple attacks. Their ages run from 15 to the early 20s.

Toronto Police, the RCMP and CSIS have been examining whether a foreign power directed the attacks. Chief Superintendent Joe Matthews, who leads the Toronto Police Service investigation, said investigators are looking into reports that outside actors may be involved. "At this point, I'm not willing to confirm or deny that piece of it," Matthews said. He added that police do not see "a very direct connection between the financier and the perpetrator on the street."

The arrangement works through encrypted messaging apps and middlemen, which puts several layers of distance between whoever orders a shooting and whoever fires the gun. CBC News obtained court records and built profiles of the accused to see what connected them. Ballistic tests, Toronto Police said, tie some of the attacks on synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses to shootings at nearby addresses tied to the waste management company GFL. "We're seeing firearms that are being used in multiple shootings that aren't just geopolitical targeted, they are crossing over with GFL," Matthews said.

The pattern reaches beyond Canada. In May, the FBI arrested Mohammad Baqer al-Saadi, whom the agency describes as a senior member of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, a militia under Iran's Revolutionary Guard. An indictment filed in New York State alleges he helped plan at least 18 attacks in Europe and two in Canada: the March 2026 shooting at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto and an assault on an unnamed synagogue. In June, Canada joined 20 other nations in a statement condemning Iran's "lethal plotting and other malign actions" across Europe, North America and Australia.

Keir Giles, a security analyst at Chatham House in London, said the method follows the approach Russia has used in Europe since invading Ukraine. "Certainly the Russian use of this kind of approach, they pushed the boundaries further and faster," Giles said. "But inevitably, once a technique or a method of achieving these nefarious aims has been demonstrated, other people will latch on." He said encrypted apps make it far easier to recruit people at little cost. CBC News asked Iran's Foreign Ministry about the Toronto allegations and received no reply.

Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, known as BAYT, was hit in early March 2026. Gunfire struck its front doors and windows late on a Friday night. Rabbi Daniel Korobkin said the congregation was angry and frustrated but will keep gathering. "We recognize that there are many players that are making Israel and Jews as the pariah of the story. We're used to it," Korobkin said. "It's not going to deter us from being Jews. It's not going to deter us from coming to synagogue."

Police cordoned off the street in front of the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on July 27 and reported that a firearm was discharged at the building that morning. The investigation by Toronto Police, the RCMP and CSIS remains open.